India gives Ghana $150m line of credit for agriculture

The government of India has given Ghana a $150 million line of credit to support the country’s agriculture sector, according to a report by the Indo-Asian News Service.

According to the report, the fund would go to support the implementation of an Agricultural Mechanisation Service Centre (AMSEC), and the projects are intended to provide farmers in the country with affordable and timely access to farm machinery.

Ghana’s Interior Minister, Mark Owen Woyongo was cited in the report to have said India has also provided another $30 million line of credit to be used for the rehabilitation and upgrade of potable water in Yendi in the northern region.

Under the AMSEC project, farmers will benefit in their land preparation with planters for precision planting, boom sprayers and pumps for proper crop maintenance, and combine harvesters for effective harvesting. Other goals of the AMSEC programme are to increase the low number of tractor to farmer ratio as well as reduce the drudgery and tediousness associated with manual farming operations, the report noted.

Agriculture is a very important contributor to Ghana’s economy, offering employment to about 60 percent of the population and contributing 22 percent to GDP in 2013, a drop in the 2009 figure of 31.8 percent.

Ghana-India bilateral relations have been going on for nearly sixty years. So far, the Indian government has extended lines of credit amounting to $224 million to the Ghana government for various developmental projects, according to information available from the Indian government.